Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Players Call Out Devs For Reusing Legendary Signature Move Animations

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet fans are taking to social media to complain about how particular Legendary Pokemon’s signature move animations are reused, despite how unique they should be. This is just the latest in a string of complaints regarding the poor quality of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet and how the game feels as if it was rushed to meet a release date.

Signature moves are attacks that belong to a single Pokemon or evolution line. These have appeared throughout the series history, such as Kadabra/Alakazam’s Kinesis and Cubone/Marowak’s Bonemerang. It’s common for Legendary Pokemon to have devastating signature moves to show their strength compared to the common Pokemon.

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Scarlet & Violet Reuse Legendary Signature Moves Animations

Now that Pokemon Scarlet & Violet are compatible with Pokemon Home, it has been revealed that specific signature move animations have been reused, as pointed out by TheRealPdGaming on the official Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Reddit page. In this case, Kyogre’s Origin Pulse and Regidrago’s Dragon Energy use the same animation, with the colors changed.

The Pokemon series has often given the Legendary Pokemon signature moves their own individual animations to underline just how powerful and unique they are. This hasn’t always been the case, as there have been rare instances of reused animations for Legendary Pokemon, but this has been the exception and not the rule.

It makes sense for many Pokemon attacks to use recycled animations. After all, you don’t need 200 unique animations for every Pokemon who uses Tackle in battle. In the case of the signature moves used by Legendaries, a bit more effort is expected, as they are meant to be these epic creatures with earth-shattering moves, so they should be given more attention than the rank-and-file Rattata and Pidgeys of the world.

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Sadly, Pokemon Scarlet & Violet have cut corners like this, but fans are used to it by now. The shoddy state of the Gen IX games at launch did little to deter the enthusiasm for the games, having already sold over 22 million copies. Reusing the Legendary Pokemon signature move animations is just the latest in a string of disappointments regarding Gen IX. With guaranteed sales of each new Pokemon game, there’s no incentive for the games to be improved.